Does "ticket grabbing tool" really work?, High speed, light speed, and ticket grabbing functions with varying costs | train tickets | artifacts
High speed, extreme speed, light speed, ticket grabbing costs vary, and grabbing the window seat, lower bunk, and other items all require additional fees
Does "ticket grabbing tool" really work?
Li Yue, who works in Beijing, has been troubled by ticket snatching recently. On the eve of May Day this year, she used the 12306 standby function to buy a train ticket to go home, but waited for many days but couldn't buy a ticket; Now, Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are coming. In order to buy a train ticket home, she decided to use ticket grabbing software. "Members who have opened three ticket grabbing apps and purchased acceleration privileges have spent a lot of money, but they still haven't been able to grab tickets to this day."
A reporter from the Legal Daily recently learned that many travelers preparing to travel during this year's Mid Autumn Festival and National Day holiday have encountered the same "ticket buying difficulties" as Li Yue. Some travelers have pinned their "hopes" on third-party platforms such as "light speed ticket grabbing", "ticket grabbing tools", and "ticket free tools".
However, on September 20th, China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. clarified through official Weibo and other channels that Railway 12306 has never authorized any third-party platform to sell train tickets, nor can it give the so-called "priority ticket purchase rights" to third-party platforms.
In this regard, many netizens directly call these "ticket grabbing tools" on third-party platforms "scammers"; But at the same time, some netizens are also puzzled: Previously, they often snatched tickets through third-party platforms and indeed bought train tickets. What's going on? What are these ticket grabbing tools really? Does it work or not?
Ticket grabbing software is on the rise
There are various ways to add money
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently dozens of ticket grabbing software on the market, most of which claim to be able to "accelerate ticket grabbing" and "prioritize ticket grabbing", but there is no 100% guarantee of being able to grab tickets.
So, does ticket grabbing software really matter?
In the eyes of Mr. Zhang from Hedong District, Tianjin, ticket grabbing software is purely a scam. He told reporters that before the Spring Festival last year, in order to buy a high-speed rail ticket back to his hometown, he registered a ticket grabbing software at 12306, and spent 30 yuan to buy an acceleration package. The next day, he received a message from 12306 reminding him that his ticket grabbing software was still in the process of ticket grabbing.
"The ticket grabbing software claimed that the money for purchasing the acceleration package could be refunded if I couldn't get the ticket, but when I was about to cancel the ticket grabbing, the software successfully snatched the ticket and sent me a text message asking me to share this' good news' on social media. Mr. Zhang recalled that he immediately contacted the customer service of the ticket grabbing software, saying that 12306 was earlier than the ticket grabbing software's waiting success, hoping that the other party could refund. However, the other party said, 'The reason why I was able to wait successfully on 12306 is because I used the ticket grabbing software,' and refused the refund.".
During the interview, the reporter found that passengers encountered various problems when using ticket grabbing software.
Shanghai resident Chen Kuan has encountered the problem of "if you want to successfully grab tickets, you need to buy more stops". He told reporters that because he was interested in a ticket grabbing software that has the function of intelligent recommendation of ticket combinations, he downloaded and registered to use it. "As a result, when I returned from Shanghai to Suzhou, Anhui, he recommended me to travel on the same train and bought 6 more stops, which means buying directly from Shanghai to Beijing and then getting off from Suzhou. The original 200 yuan ticket cost more than 500 yuan for the entire journey."
"The customer service explained that this was to improve the success rate of ticket grabbing, but it would be better to buy the whole ticket on 12306." Chen Kuan roast, after which he changed several ticket grabbing software, many of which recommended him to buy more stops to grab tickets.
The reporter noticed that in order to welcome the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, multiple third-party platforms have recently launched ticket grabbing strategies. Unlike the official ticketing channels of China Railway Group, third-party platforms can simultaneously select multiple dates, train numbers, and seats for booking and automatic ticketing during sales; There are also platforms that mark the success rate of ticket grabbing. Generally speaking, the more options available, the higher the success rate.
Taking a certain ticket grabbing software as an example, on September 20, the reporter chose to buy high-speed railway tickets from Beijing to Wuhan for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The page showed that there were no tickets left, so it was recommended to grab tickets. At present, the rate of ticket grabbing is low, and the success rate of ticket grabbing can be improved by purchasing an acceleration package. On the promotional page of the software, you can see the words "Serving 200 million users".
The ticket grabbing speed of this software is divided into 6 levels, with a low-speed ticket grabbing of 0 yuan and a network speed of 100m/s; Quickly grab tickets for 10 yuan, with 5 assistance packages and a network speed of 200m/s; 30 yuan for high-speed ticket grabbing, 15 power packs, 300m/s internet speed; Speed ticket grabbing for 40 yuan, 20 power packs, 350m/s internet speed; Light speed ticket grabbing for 50 yuan, 25 power packs, 400m/s internet speed; VIP ticket grabbing privilege is 60 yuan, including VIP ticket grabbing privilege x 4 times, 40 assistance packages, and 400m/s internet speed.
In addition, there is an acceleration package that includes tickets. The original price of the ticket can be increased by 45 yuan to fully compete for tickets, including continuous waiting and 24-hour assistance from a dedicated person. Both the acceleration package and package are marked as failed ticket grabbing and will receive a full refund.
It is said that these acceleration contents do not conflict with each other. Software membership, acceleration packages, and acceleration packages can be taken together, and personalized seats such as connecting seats, window seats, and lower bunks can be obtained by adding money. The reporter calculated that if the ticket is obtained through proxy grabbing software, some proxy grabbing fees may be even higher than the ticket price.
The reporter tried to grab tickets and found that the acceleration rules of different ticket grabbing software are different. From "low speed" to "light speed", prices gradually increase. "Full day dedicated person grabbing tickets", "leak detection+standby dual channel grabbing tickets", and even can increase prices to grab seats next to the aisle and by the window... The different "gameplay" of ticket grabbing, combined with slogans such as "doubling success rate" and "the earlier you submit the ticket grabbing success rate, the higher the success rate", have aroused the hearts of many passengers waiting for tickets.
Industry insiders pointed out in an interview that in the early stages of the launch of the railway 12306 platform, before the standby function was available, some ticket grabbing software used technological means to continuously refresh information and improve information submission speed. However, after the launch of the "standby" function on the 12306 platform, the advantages of such software no longer existed.
12306 customer service has also responded that the ticket opening time for 12306 is fixed, and it will not sell tickets in advance for third-party software. The acceleration package does not have the priority to purchase tickets. At the same time, 12306 is also increasing its technological recognition efforts, using big data to more accurately identify ticket grabbing software. Once identified, tickets will not be released to the software, and the success rate of passengers using the software to purchase tickets will also be lower.
The proxy platform is like a "scalper"
Harming the legitimate rights and interests of multiple parties
The acceleration package, which claims to help grab tickets, has also been moved to the shopping platform.
When the reporter searched for keywords such as ticket acceleration on a certain second-hand trading platform, he found that some merchants sell ticketing software platform assistance acceleration packages. One merchant told him, "So, what is the difference between so-called ticket grabbing acceleration packages and" scalpers scalping tickets "?"?
In the "Train Ticket Service Information" and "Personal Information Authorization Instructions" of a ticket grabbing software, the reporter saw that it stated that it provides "train ticket purchasing" business, which requires authorization to register a 12306 account on behalf of customers and provide authentication services such as verifying the applicant's ID card. You can also choose to authorize them to handle other services on the 12306 website or handle points, membership rights, and other matters.
Regarding this, Huang Haibo, Director of the Traffic Management and Transportation Legal Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, said that according to the notice jointly issued by multiple departments on investigating and punishing illegal activities of selling and reselling railway passenger tickets on behalf of others in accordance with the law, railway passenger tickets have implemented a monopoly system, and selling train tickets requires the qualification of being sold on behalf of others. Otherwise, it is considered illegal. If the ticket grabbing platform does not have the qualification of selling railway passenger tickets on behalf of others, the ticket selling behavior is illegal. In addition, the service fee for selling railway tickets on behalf of the platform is capped at 5 yuan per ticket, and no other fees can be charged. If the platform arbitrarily increases the price, it is considered a price violation.
"Therefore, whether the software and plugins that increase prices are legal and whether they belong to disguised ticket scalping behavior depends on whether the specific form of proxy sales is legal and whether the behavior of price markup proxy sales violates relevant legal provisions. If there is no proxy sales qualification, and the price is arbitrarily increased, or if software technology is used to invade or interfere with the railway sales system, or to obtain illegal benefits through illegal ticket scalping, it may constitute different types of illegal or even criminal activities depending on the circumstances, and such behavior should be stopped and stopped." Huang Haibo said.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that the ticket grabbing platform belongs to the "scalper party" on the Internet and is not different from the offline "scalper party" in essence.
"The original scalpers queued up to buy tickets, or found connections and bought tickets through the back door. One person bought dozens or even hundreds of tickets, and then reselled them. The original 300 yuan ticket was sold for thousands of yuan. Now the Internet scalpers are taking advantage of technological advantages, resulting in unfair booking. For consumers, this kind of behavior infringes their right to fair trade, choice and information. It also damages the interests of 12306 platform and legal train ticket sales outlets, so that consumers can not enjoy free, timely and efficient ticket buying services." Liu Junhai said.
In the view of civil law expert He Shan, for ticket grabbing software, if the relevant department allows it to sell tickets online, it can charge a service fee. The national railway department explicitly stipulates that the service fee for each ticket cannot exceed 5 yuan. If the price is increased above this price, it violates the price law and is a behavior that disrupts social order.
Strictly crack down on illegal ticket grabbing
Standardize the operation market order
In response to some third-party platforms claiming to provide ticket grabbing acceleration packages at different prices such as' low speed ',' high speed ', and' speed of light ', users who purchase acceleration packages can prioritize ticket purchases, while users who purchase high priced acceleration packages can rank ahead of users who purchase low priced acceleration packages. The head of China Railway Group's passenger transportation department emphasized that "no user has the right to priority ticket purchases, and any price of acceleration package purchased on third-party platforms cannot achieve priority ticket purchases."
Previously, the topic of "12306 ticket grabbing" surged on the hot search. In the process of grabbing tickets, some netizens roast that the system showed that there were enough tickets left, but they still had to queue up to buy them. "711 people queued up in front"; Some netizens also question that third-party software grabbing tickets has taken up a "pit" for ordinary users.
Regarding this, 12306 customer service responded that the reason why there are still enough remaining tickets to queue up is due to too many users placing orders at the same time. The ticket sales time for 12306 is fixed and will not be sold in advance for third-party software.
The person in charge of the Passenger Transport Department of China Railway Group also stated that the railway department has always adhered to the principle of fairness and justice, and has taken technical measures to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of passengers and normal ticket sales order. Through real-time monitoring and big data analysis of the 12306 system, once users with abnormal ticket buying behavior are found, flow restriction measures will be taken. When new ticket amounts are generated due to reasons such as ticket refunds, the railway 12306 system prioritizes meeting standby ticket orders and redeems them in the order in which passengers submit their orders, without any additional charges.
Industry insiders who have worked in the high-speed rail industry for many years told reporters that if ticket resources are scarce, the success rate of using third-party platforms to develop corresponding software to "swipe tickets" may be higher than that of ticket buyers manually "swiping tickets", but there is no guarantee of purchasing tickets, let alone the right of first refusal to purchase tickets, "because essentially all tickets are purchased from 12306.".
So, how should we regulate these "ticket grabbing tools" in the future?
In Huang Haibo's view, legitimate acts of proxy sales should be allowed, but illegal activities must be stopped. To achieve the goal of treating both symptoms and root causes, it is not only necessary for various online platforms to operate legally and compliantly, but also for relevant functional departments to strengthen law enforcement, crack down on illegal ticket grabbing and arbitrary price increases, punish illegal and criminal activities, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the online ticket booking market.
"Consumers should maintain a calm mindset and not listen to the propaganda of unofficial online platforms. They should book or snatch tickets through legal channels and legitimate platforms to prevent being deceived. The saying goes, 'Without buying or selling, there is no harm. Not using illegal platforms to snatch tickets can not only prevent themselves from being deceived, but also force illegal online platforms to exit the market and regulate the order of the online booking market.'" Huang Haibo said.
Liu Junhai believes that in the past, many plugins that provided ticket grabbing software have been banned and stopped, and now these ticket grabbing software should also be banned and stopped.
"We should address both the root cause and the root cause. In addition to cleaning up and rectifying ticketing software and stopping paid business models, the most fundamental way out is to improve the operational efficiency of the official ticketing system, make up for technological shortcomings, and introduce advanced technology suppliers through open bidding to ensure that services keep up with the massive demand of consumers. Pursuing the root cause, what can be solved with technology will not be solved through legal sanctions." Liu Junhai said, regulating the operation of the market order, protecting consumers' rights to know, choose, fair trade, and security, relevant departments also need to work hard to eliminate the current phenomenon of difficult ticketing.
